Arma Reforger:Weapon Creation

Goals of this tutorial

In this tutorial you will learn about:

• Importing your first FBX file
• Adding sockets & skeleton
• How to configure new weapon

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If you don't have any experience with Workbench yet, it is recommended to go through modded weapon tutorial to familiarize with some of the concepts present in the Workbench

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Sources files for this tutorial can be found on Arma Reforger Samples Github repository

Adding new weapon

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Preparation phase consist of things like:

• Preparing basic structure
• Preparing mesh
• Exporting mesh

Preparing structure

While keeping to official structure is not mandatory and there are no engine restrictions asset wise about it, it's recommended to follow guidelines listed here - Data (file) structure - to ensure that all automation plugins are parsing your assets correctly and make it later easy to navigate.

Therefore, your first task will be preparing following file structure

Preparing mesh

This tutorial will try to cover procedure for plugging in new weapon into Enfusion Workbench. While tutorial might be more focused on Blender users, other software users shouldn't be worried since most of the things are working very similar in other programs.

Object orientation

One of the most important thing to begin with is making sure that your model is properly orientated. As per Arma Reforger:FBX Import page:

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Everything must be oriented as pointing along/towards the Y+ axis in Blender and 3dsMax and along Z+ axis in Maya

That means, when you are importing A3 weapon you need to rotate it by 90 degrees to the left.

Cutting object to parts

Most likely model that you might already have few bits already present in the mesh. Since Enfusion allows you to assemble weapon from multiple parts, we will split our mesh into multiple separate objects to achieve much higher customization of weapon.

In this case, sample contains two parts which could be potentially moved to separate files, letting you to have 3 variants in total quite easily. As marked on above video, grip & iron sights were moved to separate FBX files. Magazine was already separated for that particular mesh so only remaining thing to do is adding slot points for those accessories.

Naming of objects

When it comes to naming, there are few important rules to keep in mind.

1. _LODx suffix is used to indicate Level of Details
2. UBX_, UCX_, USP_, UCS_, UCL_, UTM_ prefixes are used to mark Colliders
3. OCC_ prefix is used for Geometry Occluders

Beside that, there are also some additional guidelines regarding naming of the objects - slot/snap points naming convention - itself which don't have effect on how mesh is processed by engine (like those mentioned above) but are there to have consistency. It's also worth to note that some of base weapon prefabs are using some of those names by default (they can be of course changed but it's strongly advised to follow those rules nevertheless).

Adding slots/snap points

If you had experience with Arma 3 modding, then whole concept of having slots & snap points should be fairly familiar to you. Those dummy objects are serving as memory points - there is one major difference though - you no longer have to place two points to make an axis. Instead, rotation of dummy object is used.

In Blender, you can use one of the empty objects like Plain Axis to create those helper points.

Please notice Plain Axis gizmo - this is the orientation of the model. Make sure that your empty object is properly aligned

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One easy method to have slot & snap points correctly aligned is to create first slot points, when the mesh is still in one piece, and then copy paste mesh & empty socket to new empty scene. After that only thing left is to rename slot_XX to snap_XX .

On Sample Weapon, following slots were created:

• slot_ironsight_front & slot_ironsight_rear - slots for picattinny mounted ironsights
• slot_magazine - slot for magazine well
• slot_optics - slot for top mounted optics
• slot_underbarrel - slot for bottom mounted accessories like bipod

Additional, following empty objects were created for various components:

• snap_hand_right - helper point for weapon deployment
• barrel_chamber & barrel_muzzle - those points are used in MuzzleComponent to determine location & direction where bullet is spawned
• eye - point for aiming down sight view. Used in SightsComponent

Colliders & material names

Colliders are special type of objects which are used to calculate various kinds of collisions - be it physic simulation or tracing of bullet penetration. There are few rules regarding those colliders and most of them listed FBX Import - Colliders usage page.

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  Collider with Weapon Layer Preset

• 

  Collider with FireGeo Layer Preset

Weapon requires at least one collider with Weapon layer preset - if you don't have it, then weapon actions like equip will be missing from it. If your geometry is simple enough, it is possible to just use one collider for both weapon & fire geometry collision. Otherwise it might be necessary to have two colliders:

• One for Weapon collision - should be very simple collider (i.e. convex)
• Another for FireGeo collision - can be more detailed, trimesh can be used to provide best experience available.

When importing asset from previous Arma game - like in this example - you are most likely going to have already convex components ready from Geometry, Fire Geometry, View Geometry or Geometry Physx LODs and in this case automatically Fire Geometry LOD from Arma 3 were used as FireGeo and mesh from Geometry LOD was used for Weapon layer.

Now you might ask how to assign Layer Presets. If you are using Blender, there is small handy tool - Objects Tool - which is part of Enfusion Blender Tools to assist you with assigning correct game materials & layer presets on colliders.Otherwise, take a look at FBX Import page where there are instructions how to set that parameter in 3DS Max or Maya.

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You can use Model Quality Assurance to verify if your colliders are convex by checking UCX Collider option.

Setting skeleton & rigging mesh

Creating skeleton

Whether it's new model or mesh imported from P3D, most likely it will be necessary to prepare skeleton. In Blender skeletons are called Armatures and their creation process is quite straightforward. Starting with creation of Armature itself, this can be done by selecting Armature option from Add menu in top section of the viewport while being in Object mode.

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It is recommended to keep your armature called Armature since in such scenario, you will avoid artificial bone in skeleton hierarchy when mesh is imported in Workbench. While it might be not causing any issue on rifles, it is basically a necessary thing when importing character related gear.

Once its created, you might notice that root bone is quite large and might wish to resize it - to do so, switch to Edit Mode and select that Bone and then reduce its size to some reasonable level.

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Armature should be located at 0,0,0 point and use 1.0 scale. Otherwise you might encounter some problems when trying to animate it in Blender at later stage.

Next step will be rotation of this bone towards the front of the weapon and then renaming it to w_root - this bone will serve us a root bone of this mesh.

Creating bones

After basics of armature are done, it is time to add bones for all animated parts on the weapon. While in Edit Mode and with Armature selected, it is possible to add new bones through either:

• Add→Single Bone option in top bar of viewport
• By duplicating bone already present in the armature - like w_root

If you choose the first option, then it will be necessary to resize & rotate the new bone to the desired size. Duplication doesn't have this problem, so it was chosen to create the fire mode switch bone - w_fire_mode. It is also important to keep the hierarchy of bones in order, and in this case it means that all bones responsible for moving parts of the weapon - like w_fire_mode - should be parented to w_root. This can be done selecting bone in Edit Mode and then changing Parent property in Relations section of Bone properties tab.

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Consider setting bones visibility to In Front - this will help with placement of the bones.

There are also few thing to keep in mind when creating bones and below is list of those things:

• Bones will serve as axis for any further motion so try to place them in spots which would result in reasonable motion, like center of fire selector pivot point or center of bolt.
• Keep Y+ orientation of the bones - this might be especially handy is some action is using center of bone for actions
• While it's not necessary, it is recommended to use vanilla naming convention for bones - this will be especially useful when dealing with animation export, since vanilla animation export profiles expects such bone names.
  • It is still possible to use custom names but this might require custom export profiles - more about it will mentioned in chapter covering animation of weapon

With this knowledge in mind, it should be possible to create rest of the bones like w_trigger, w_charging_handle and w_bolt.

Skinning mesh

Skinning of the mesh depends on the software that you are using and if you don't know how to do it in software of your choice, it is recommended to search for some tutorials on the web what skinning of bones is.

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If you imported model from P3D via Enfusion Blender Tools then most likely you will have some vertex groups already - in this case you can try to rename those so they match skeleton bone names.

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Recommended read: Official Blender documentation - Assigning a Vertex Group

If you are using Blender, here you can find short instruction how to quickly setup skinning on object. In example below, w_bolt bone will be set

1. Switch to Object Mode
2. Select object which you want to skin - in this it is body_02_LOD0
3. In Modifiers Properties tab, add Armature modifier via Add Modifier button
4. In Object Data Properties expand Vertex Group panel
5. Switch to Edit Mode and then activate face selection mode
6. Select faces which should belong to bolt
7. In Vertex Group section, click on plus button to Add Vertex Group
8. Double click with Left Mouse Button on it and change name of that new vertex group from Group to w_bolt
9. Click on Assign button in Vertex Groups section (assuming you still have selected bolt faces in viewport) - this will assign your current selection in viewport to w_bolt vertex group with full influence (influence is controlled by Weight property)any log

At this stage w_bolt bone should be successfully rigged but that is not the end of the process!

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Below section applies to any 3D software!

When creating skinned objects, Enfusion Workbench expects that the whole object is skinned to some bone. Otherwise importer will try to "fix" it by skinning remaining faces to some root bone and in console log you will see below message:

RESOURCES (W): Missing some mesh skinning weights (Object_LOD0). Weighting them to root

In Blender realms, this means that any object which Armature modifier, must be fully skinned to some existing bone through vertex groups. In this case it means that all faces, beside those which belongs to w_bolt vertex group, on body_02_LOD0 object has to be skinned to w_root bone. In this case it was done by selecting faces belonging to w_bolt and then inverting the selection via CTRL+I shortcut. After that, new vertex group called w_root was created and current selection was assigned to it via Assign button.

Rigging colliders

If you have some animated collider please keep in mind that only trimesh colliders can be skinned. In all other cases you have to use 100% weight.

In Blender it gets even bit more tricky and Object Relations (in Object tab) have to be used if you want connect non trimesh collider to some skeleton bone.

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It is also recommended to parent slots on the weapon to the Armature - it is not necessary to parent it to w_root bone though. This should make it easier to snap magazine in reload sequence for instance

FBX export settings

Most of the general rules can be found on FBX Import page . In principle, when exporting from i.e. 3DS Max, you have to make sure that you are exporting in binary format in version 2014/2015. Furthermore, Triangulation & Preserve Edge Orientation should be turned off.

Blender wise, there are 3 most important things to keep in mind when exporting FBX

1. Object Types: For animated object like weapon you need to have checked on at least: Empty - which handles all snap points Armature - exports skeleton of your weapon Mesh - self explanatory
2. Custom Properties: Without this option all custom properties like LayerPresets would be lost!
3. Leaf bones: Leaf bones are completely unnecessary in Enfusion and it's better to have that option turned off

Preparing textures

When importing textures of weapon from previous Real Virtuality games like Arma 3 there is no real automated or simple method of conversion spec-gloss textures to PBR (Physicial Based Rendering) Metal Rough ones - current industry standard. Therefore in most cases it's much easier to do textures from scratch in i.e. Substance Painter.

There are tons of materials on the internet how to create proper PBR texture and it's highly recommend to search for it via some popular search engines.

Importing Mesh

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In this chapter following topics will be explained

• Importing new model
• Importing textures

Importing & registering new model

Once mesh was successfully prepared and all selections, sockets & snap points are in place, it's time to try our asset in game. Majority of the process is already pretty well described on FBX import - Import process in the Workbench page.

In principle, all you have to do is click with right mouse button on your FBX files and select Register and Import option from the context menu

Checking colliders & materials

After initial import was done it's time to make sure that materials & colliders are using proper materials & colliders. By default, Enfusion will try to assign material based on the name of the assigned texture in mesh. If it fails to find such texture, new dummy material (see area marked in orange on screen below) will be created next to the FBX model.

There are 2 typical errors when it comes to collider configuration:

Colliders errors example

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Make sure that you have "usage" property defined in collider object properties.

More info about it can be found on Arma_Reforger:FBX_Import

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Make sure that correct material is assigned to all colliders

More info about it can be found on Arma_Reforger:FBX_Import

Skeleton & hierarchy

Import Settings tab

Next we will take care of bones - in this case, magazine object has only empty objects (snap point) and to import them, checking of Export Scene Hierarchy in Miscellaneous section of Import Settings tab should be enough.

In case of skinned assets like rifles, Export Skinning option should be used instead. It might be also good to know that Export Scene Hierarchy is not necessary when Export Skinning option is selected.

Below process of setting Export Scene Scene Hierarchy is showcased

Importing hierarchy on magazine

Importing skinning on weapon

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Changes made in Import Settings tab are only applied to model after manually reimporting model via Reimport resource (PC) button.

Importing textures

In principle, you can use same procedures as the ones described on Weapon Modding page.

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Recommended read: Textures

By default, Workbench should already create some of the materials based on their material name in FBX, so in case of SampleWeapon_01.xob, there should be already some emats which needs to be properly configured.

• SampleWeapon_01_Camo1.emat material with two textures
  • SampleWeapon_01_Camo1_BCR - Base color + Roughness
  • SampleWeapon_01_Camo1_NMO - Normal map
• SampleWeapon_01_Camo2.emat also with two textures
  • SampleWeapon_01_Camo2_BCR - Base color + Roughness
  • SampleWeapon_01_Camo2_NMO - Normal map

Since in this example, magazine is sharing textures with rifle itself, it is necessary to adjust textures over there. To do so, double click on XOB file of magazine to open it in new Resource Manager tab. After that, it is possible to set up materials which were previously created for the weapon itself.

Materials can be assigned in 2 ways:

• Drag and dropping desired material on material icon in Materials tab
  • This action will automatically reimport model with selected material
• Changing Material Assign in Visual section of Import Settings
  • It will be necessary to click on Reimport resource (PC) button after applying changes

Below is showcase of first method:

Weapon configuration

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In this chapter we will learn how fuel is simulated in game and we will change following things:

• Creating new rifle prefab
• Configuring basic weapon parameters

Basic weapon configuration

Basic weapon prefab setup

When making prefabs of weapons it's recommended to inherit from one of the already existing prefabs located in Prefabs\Weapons\Core - those prefabs should have most of the necessary configuration for various kinds of weapons.

In this case we will use Rifle_Base.et as parent prefab. To do so, navigate in Resource Browser attached to World Editor to Prefabs\Weapons\Core & locate Rifle_Base.et prefab. Once you are there, click with right mouse button on that prefab and select Inherit Prefab in Addon from context menu. When asked about new name of prefab, consider calling this new prefab nameofweapon_base - this might be especially useful when you plan to have multiple variants of weapon, since it will help you to keep your structure nice and clean. After new inherited prefab is created, relocate it to some more fitting location like Prefabs/Weapons/Rifles folder.

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Other method involves duplicating some already existing prefab - this might be handy if you are creating something similar to already existing weapons. For instance if you are making some new M16 variant, you could use Duplicate to "addon name" function on Rifle_M16A2_base.et and then modify parameters of such new prefab.

After new prefab is created, it is possible to start modifying it. First step would be assigning correct model - SampleWeapon_01.xob - to MeshObject component.

MeshObject component with assigned weapon model

If you inherited from core weapon type like Rifle_Base.et then you might also need to add following components:

• RigidBody - this component is responsible for all kind of collisions and without it will be impossible to pick up weapon.
  • Once component is created it will be necessary to check Model Geometry parameter so its enabled
• SCR_MeleeWeaponProperties - this component defines how much damage does this weapon when its used in melee fight
  • For rifles Damage value of 45 is a good starting point - for smaller weapon feel free to use lower value

Additional, it might be also worth adding another CaseEjectingEffectComponent to Muzzle Component, which is going to emit muzzle smoke. To do so, click with Right Mouse Button on MuzzleComponent and select from context menu option Add child component and select CaseEjectingEffectComponent from the list.

In component itself, following changes will be required:

• Assign fitting particle effect to Particle Effect field - i.e. Smoke_M16A2.ptc
• In Effect Position parameter click on set class button and pick EntitySlotInfo class and call it for instance Muzzle
  • Inside Effect Position, change Pivot ID to barrel_muzzle
• Change Has Sound parameter to disabled state

Changing inventory parameters

In SCR_WeaponAttachmentsStorageComponent it is possible to adjust some of the basic item properties related to inventory but there is also one section which is used for defining weapon IK pose (RV veterans might find it similar to handAnims parameter). Animation IK pose is not going to be described in this paragraph though so let's move to inventory configuration.

When looking at SCR_WeaponAttachmentsStorageComponent, multiple Attributes can be observed like:

• Item Display Name - as name suggest, here it is possible to change Name and Description (on-hover tool tip visible in in-game inventory)
• Item Phys Attributes - various physical attributes of the item like mass, volume, etc
• Item Animation Attributes - here are defined item IK poses defined

Beside those attributes, there are also Custom Attributes where it is possible to for example change Item Inspection Anim or character max speed when given item is equipped or change PreviewRenderAttributes, which controls the little preview of weapon in inventory menu - if your weapon has some odd size, it might necessary to adjust camera parameters over there.

In Rifle_Base prefab, Item Phys Attributes is not configured and it is necessary to use "set class" button next to it. This action will enable this section and fill it with some default values, which can be freely changed afterwards..

For this Sample Weapon, following changes were done:

• In Item Display Name section, Name property was changed to name of the weapon - in this case it is just "Sample Weapon"
• In Item Phys Attributes :
  • Weight parameter was adjusted to somehow match the weight of real weapon without any accessories (including magazine). This parameter is using kilograms and in this example it was set to 4kg
  • Size Setup Strategy was setup to Volume. This means that size of that object will be calculated using Item Volume .
  • Item Volume [in cm3] defines how much space in inventory takes that object. In this example it is set to 3000 just to showcase how it works, normally, 3000 is used for machine guns, while rifle like AK74 has this value set to 1500

Configuring weapon characteristics

Most of the weapon firing characteristic can be changed in MuzzleComponent which is child of WeaponComponent. Over there, it is possible to Fire Modes, Dispersion, Bullet Init Speed Coef, Magazines and others. In this segment, focus would be but on getting fire modes set correctly.

Starting with Fire Modes, Rifle_Base prefab has by default fire modes - Safe & Single fire mode, therefore it is assumed that any rifle has a safe mode. If it's not the case for the asset that you are preparing, then it might be necessary to create new base prefab based of Weapon_Base prefab - this scenario is not going to be described here though.

For purpose of this tutorial, Sample Weapon is equipped with three fire modes - safe, single & full auto. Since parent prefab has only two fire modes, a new one has to be added through + sign on the right side of the Fire Modes property. Once it's there, it can be filled with proper data.

BaseFireMode with Max Burst set to 1 will work as single fire mode. On newly added BaseFireMode, Max Burst should be set to -1 - this fire mode will work as full auto mode.

Burst fire weapons can be configured by setting Max Burst property to something above 1. In this case, new property will appear - Burst Type. Over there it is possible to select 3 types of burst fire:

• Uninterruptible - once player presses fire button, weapon will fire exactly the amount of shots defined in Max Burst (unless weapon runs out of ammo)
• Interruptible - burst fire will be interrupted once player release fire button. Burst memory is present ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burst_mode_(weapons) )
• InterruptibleAndReseting - same as above but without burst memory

Configuring recoil

Weapon recoil is in configured on of the sub classes of Weapon Aim Modifiers. Rifle_Base prefab is missing RecoilWeaponAimModifier & ZeroingWeaponAimModifier subclasses in Weapon Aim Modifiers, therefore those have to be added to it. After those classes are added, it will be necessary to tweak the recoil manually. As reference, either screen below or AK74 prefab can be used as reference.

Setting zeroing adjustments

First, you need to setup SightsComponent and fill in Sights Ranges with desired zeroings of your weapon.

X value represents animation source value & Y represents desired zeroing range in meters (note that this value is also shared by UI). In example above, there are only zeroings available with 300 & 500 meters range. Once you have filled that data you can click with right mouse button on WeaponComponent & then select from context menu "Process zeroing data". This button will automatically calculate necessary offsets for weapon positions so, comparing to i.e. Arma 3 animated iron sights, you don't have to manually create those eye points for each range.

Basic magazine prefab setup

New magazine prefab can be easily created by inheriting from Magazine_Base.et prefab. Once new prefab inheriting from Magazine_Base.et is prepared, it is possible to assign magazine model in MeshObject.

Next step will be modification of magazine related properties in MagazineComponent. Over there, it is possible to set

In InventoryItemComponent, similar to main weapon, it is possible to change inventory related properties like name or weight. In this example, values were set as on picture below.

Creating new Magazine Well

Magazine wells are classes, which help to establish multi weapon (& mods) magazine compatibility. Any magazine which is using selected class will be usable in any other weapon, which is using exactly same magazine well.

In Arma Reforger, there are already plenty of magazine wells available but since this sample weapon is using rather unique magazine well, a new one has to be created.

New magazine well can be added to the list by creating a new script file in one of the game script folders (f.e. Scripts/Game/Weapon folder can be used - if you don't have such folder, then you would to create them manually). There are no requirements to the name of the script file but it is suggested to use MagazineWell_ prefix to make things clear. Once script is created, the only remaining thing is to create a new class which inherits from BaseMagazineWell.

// Script File class MagazineWell65x39C_SampleWeaponClass {} MagazineWell65x39C_SampleWeaponClass MagazineWell65x39C_SampleWeaponSource; class MagazineWell65x39C_SampleWeapon : BaseMagazineWell { }

In example above, new magazine well is called MagazineWell65x39C_SampleWeapon.

After magazine well is created, it will be necessary to recompile all game scripts via either Compile and Reload Scripts (Shift+F7) option in Script Editor or Reload Game Scripts (Ctrl+R) in World Editor. Once scripts are compiled it should be possible to assign that class in Magazine Well property found both in MagazineComponent of magazine and MuzzleComponent of weapon.

Adding weapon & magazines to crates

Once weapon and magazine are ready, it is possible to add those to crates, so they can be picked up either in Conflict armory or during Game Master sessions. In principle, there are two types of crates available in game:

• Arsenal crates - those can be either unlimited or be single use. Closely tied to playable Factions. It is impossible to precisely specify amount of available items.
• Regular storage crates - using standard storage system, where creator defines exact amount of items, which are available inside of the crate.

Arsenal crates

Adding new items to existing Faction Arsenals crates involves following steps:

• Creating override of existing Arsenal config - either ArsenalConfig_BLUFOR.conf (used by US Army), ArsenalConfig_INDFOR.conf (used by FIA) or ArsenalConfig_OPFOR.conf (used by USSR faction) - by using Override in "addon name" functionality
• Open overridden file and adding of new entry to Arsenal Items array by clicking on plus icon
• Assigning prefab of item, which is supposed to be visible in Arsenal crate, to Item Resource Name property. This can be done either by clicking on button with two dots or by dragging and dropping prefab on this field
• Selecting proper Item Type & Item Mode from the drop down menu.
  • For rifles, Item Type can be set to RIFLE and Item Mode to WEAPON
  • For rifle magazines, Item Type can be set to RIFLE and Item Mode to AMMUNITION

Once those changes are performed, it might be necessary to Reload Game Scripts or even restart the Workbench. After that, those new items should be visible in existing crates in both Game Master and Conflict game mode.

Regular storage crates

If it is desired to have some specific amount of items, then it is possible to utilize UniversalInventoryStorageComponent (or its SCR_ equivalent) which can be added to basically to any entity with physics enabled.

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Process of adding such custom create to in-game editor is not covered here and this subject is pretty well covered on Asset Browser Mod Integration page.

First step, would be locating prefab where new item should be stored. In this tutorial AmmoBox_545x39_2160rnd.et was duplicated to addon as AmmoBox_SampleWeaponMagazines.et and then used as an example on how to add new magazines to it. Once that duplicated prefab is present in target addon, following things have to be done:

• Navigate to SCR_UniversalInventoryStorageComponent
• Add new entry to Multi Slots array
• Set Slot Template to InventoryStorageSlot and assign to it some unique name, i.e. Magazines
• Assign magazine prefab to Prefab slot in this newly created Slot Template
• Change number of items present in this slot by modifying Num Slots value (f.e. it can be set to 25)

After that, this crate should have 25 magazines of your choice inside

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TODO: this must be updated.